I walked through the backdoor into the shop, peeking into the office and seeing it empty. Both Fields and Tammy were in the shop and luckily it was empty.

  “Good, you’re both here,” I said, walking over to the counter.

  Fields was rearranging stuff on the shelves and Tammy was writing in the notebooks. She wasn’t looking at me to see my face, but Fields was. He instantly stopped what he was doing, coming back to the counter.

  “Sunie isn’t with you?” Tammy asked.

  “Not this time,” I replied, seeing a flash of annoyance cross Fields’ face.

  Jealousy at the mention of Sunie? Did he have a thing for Tammy? That would not be good. She looked up and saw my face.

  I had my slightly-worried-but-nothing-immediately-bad-but-could-quickly-turn-bad expression. That’s what Kat had called it.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  I explained what happened when I’d left earlier. Running into the Anura and Jhang Gho, the tribunal and the conversations with Orbic and Subudai.

  “I should have thought that the Bounding Dragons would be spying on us,” Fields said. “That’s on me.”

  “It’s no one’s fault,” I said. “I didn’t think of it either.”

  “Not sure what info they can get spying on the store,” Tammy said, tapping her pencil against the top of the counter. “And it’s not like Clan Howell,” she paused, taking a deep breath and rubbing at the bridge of her nose. “And it’s not like the Solace Fellowship hides stuff. We’re pretty open about our strengths and dealings.”

  “Subudai tries to hide stuff,” Fields said, shrugging. “Probably thinks everyone is” He chuckled, looking at me, like it was my fault. “Besides, typically when someone is so open, it does mean they’re trying to distract from what they’re hiding.”

  It was my turn to shrug.

  “And we’re hiding nothing.”

  “Fred probably is,” Fields pointed out.

  I shrugged again.

  As long as it wasn’t anything that would hurt us, I didn’t really care. I did, because I had to, but we had some pretty good spies in the Clan and Fields wasn’t high enough up to be in on those meetings. Tammy was, but she knew better than to mention it publically. I’d need to talk to the spymaster when I got back to Solacetown.

  “So we need to keep an eye out for any Bounding Dragons watching us and for these Anura to try something?” Fields asked.

  “Pretty much,” I replied and sighed. “This kind of changes the plans a bit though. I’ll need to talk with Kat.”

  “What changes?” Tammy asked.

  “Both of you are basically non-combatants,” I said, holding up a hand to stop the protests. “Yes, you have some offensive and defensive Abilities and have fought before, but you’re also not close to Level 100 and even though I think you both could go one-on-one and win against one of Subudai’s Level 100 grinders, I don’t think you’d be a match against one of the Anura.”

  “And that means?” Tammy prompted.

  “I’m getting there.” She glared at me. I ignored it. “It means you both need guards.” I held up a hand to stop the protesting again. “When Sarah and the others hit Level 100 and can bring two folks with them, we’ll change things up so some guards come.” I looked at Fields. “I know you have your own guards, give Kat a couple of names and we’ll arrange to have them here.”

  He nodded.

  “Do you really think that’s necessary?”

  “Yes, but I hope not.”

  ***

  “You certainly are setting records,” Stylo said, appearing next to me as I walked out of the portal in the Solace Compound.

  “Hello,” I replied walking toward the main building.

  “Good afternoon,” Stylo said. “A trip to the Tribunal and you’ve only been here a couple weeks.”

  “Wasn’t my fault.”

  “No, but it is still some kind of record.”

  I sighed. I wasn’t trying to set records, it was just kind of happening.

  “Fun,” I muttered.

  Luckily Sytlo caught the sarcasm and didn’t comment. I walked inside and he followed. Sitting down at the head of the table, I pulled a beer out of my inventory. I was really thankful that anything in the inventory stayed in a kind of stasis. It didn’t last forever but it lasted long enough. The beer was still cold. I’d need to restock my next trip back to Solace.

  “Hey Stylo?”

  “Yes, Nick?”

  “Is there any way I can bring you to Earth?”

  “No, I am sorry, but I am part of the Nexus and cannot leave.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I figured, but it was worth a try. I pulled out a burger, plate and all. Wasn’t sure when the last time I ate was and I was fairly hungry.

  “Stylo, tell me about the Multiverse,” I said. “Who are the Haric and what’s their role in all this?”

  “Ah yes, the Haric,” Stylo said, taking a seat, or pretending to take a seat. “Many believe they are the creators of the Celestial Challenge System but they are not. They were the first to set foot on the Multiversal Nexus and find the Infinite Tower.”

  “But they didn’t create it?”

  “No, they did not. Now this part is debatable, but they may have created the Nexus around the Tower but they did not create the Tower.”

  “Why don’t you know?”

  Stylo tilted his head a bit, long fingers tapping against his chin, as he tried to answer that question.

  “I am not sure,” he finally replied, which was very odd since he was connected to the Nexus itself. “I don’t have the answers,” he said. “My data does not go all the way back to the creation of the Nexus. Which is odd.”

  “That’s kind of creepy,” I said. “That these Haric or whoever want to hide the origins of the Nexus and Tower.”

  “It is most likely all tied together with the origins of the Celestial System and that is not something that the System wants most to know.”

  I nodded. I could understand that.

  “I’ve always wondered what the Celestial part of the Celestial Challenge System meant. Some on Earth just think it relates to the stars or the universe.”

  “In some ways they are correct,” Style said as I pulled out a second beer. “But in others they are wrong. The Celestial does not relate to the stars but it does relate the universe, or multiverse to be specific.”

  “What’s the difference?” I asked. “This is all just part of the same universe, right? Each Faction is from a different galaxy and we’re just using portals instead of some kind of FTL or some other means of science fiction space travel.”

  Stylo’s head tilted again, fingers tapping on his chin, as he thought.

  “I assume FTL means faster-than-light?” I nodded. “Yes, you can think of portals that way. And the Nexus is where all the portals meet. And yes, all the Factions are from what you would call galaxies.”

  “So why is it called the Multiversal Nexus when it’s all just one Universe? Back on Earth, before the System came, we had these things called comic books and they had the concept of the Multiverse as being the same universe, just kind of copied and with little changes. Like on Earth 2, or 616 or 52, whatever, I could be a girl named Nicole or something.”

  “That is an interesting theory, and maybe that is how reality works but we do not know,” Stylo said. “The Multiverse does exist. There are different universes out there but they are not connected.”

  “But they can be?”

  “Yes, that is what many believe is at the top of the tower. The next Ascension. You reach the top and you Ascend to the next universe.”

  “So universes are like steps?”

  “That is the theory.”

  “Interesting. I was always taught in Science that the Universe was everything.”

  “And it is, at this level or step,” Stylo said.

  I nodded, conceding his point, taking out a third beer. This conversation was thirsty listening.

  “So it really should just be the Universal Nexus but it’s the Multiversal Nexus.”

  “If that makes you happy,” Stylo said, giving me a slight smile.

  “It does, otherwise my head hurts.” I took the last bite of the burger, pushing the plate to the side of the table. I was still kind of hungry but didn’t have anything pre-made in my inventory besides some travel rations and I did not want those. “So what are the Celestial then?”

  “The Great Beings that made the Systems.”

  “Systems?”

  “Yes,” Stylo nodded. “There are other universes, so there would be other Systems.”

  I nodded, conceding the point again.

  “So they’re Gods?”

  “They are the Gods to the Gods,” Stylo corrected.

  “Gods of the Gods,” I muttered. “Great.” Then something about what Stylo said really sunk in. “There are Gods?”

  “Of course,” he said, as if it was the silliest question he’d ever heard.

  “How come I never met any?”

  “Haven’t met any yet,” Stylo pointed out. “But what you consider Gods are really just high Leveled members of their Factions.”

  “Ah, yeah, that makes sense.”

  All this was really beyond me and really hadn’t been what I wanted to ask. But it was interesting to think about. We had to be striving for something, right? The System wanted us to keep pushing, keep Advancing and striving. So what was the end goal?

  Hit Level One Thousand and then what? Not that I knew One Thousand was the cap, if there was a cap, but it was a number to reference. So once hit that Level, then what? There had to be something. Level One Hundred wasn’t the end, not once Earth got integrated with the rest of the Multiverse, it was just the start of the next step. Hit the top of the Tower, max out the Levels and go onto the next step?

  Endlessly moving up steps from universe to universe?

  Gaining more and more power, over and over again.

  That did seem kind of pointless. Just the same thing, repeated.

  I guess eventually everyone would reach as far as they could go and just live.

  But for those with endless ambition? There was always something to keep reaching for.

  And longer life. Each Level gained added years to a person’s lifespan. I was sure there were some people that were thousands of years old and just didn’t want to die, so they kept pushing, adding years and years to reach some stage of immortality.

  Never dying was a kind of incentive I guess.