Chapter 26 - Such a Lovely Place, such a Lonely Face - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

  "So, Amanda," Petra said, preparing a snack for both of them in the café. "About what just happened, Frank just returned from Rocatrista. It's only problems around knights and Alphas—things that seem dangerous, and we don't know what's going on."

  "Well, I'm not an expert on none of that either; I only have some students who ended up training those abilities because, at least in my city, they didn't make the knights scapegoats. Maybe that's because we are trying to preserve the old Gate culture and philosophy. Anyway, that's become rare since we lost the Academy in Gate. Seneca remains famous because he helped the city several times, even after the cataclysm," Amanda replied, swinging her legs as she floated.

  "Regarding Seneca, the good news is that we'll have a chance to find him in a few days, but we still don't know much about the particular universe where Frank and I came from, and to make things worse, he always travels alone, and nobody seems to know what happened to him after he went into exile," Petra tried to summarize.

  "I don't think this will help much, but I have a former student who works as a special information broker—a service usually requested by knights during their missions. I asked him about Seneca just before leaving my city, and according to him, after the cataclysm, Seneca only requested one single service; he was looking for artifacts that could eliminate someone's corruption. Unfortunately, that kind of thing doesn't seem to exist," Amanda commented.

  "Corruption of what?" Petra asked, lost.

  "Hmmm… How am I going to explain this?" Amanda asked herself. "There's a magic school that's quite rare but not restricted because it's difficult for someone to dedicate time to learning something almost exclusively theoretical. It's a peculiar school; instead of syllables, it represents silence. The speaker only thinks about the sounds without saying anything when used, and this magic school has various names. In the ancestral tradition, they call it ethics; among the spirits, it's common to call them philosophical magics, and the Nailia call it darkness. It's funny that they don't seem to do much things after casting it. But according to legends, these magics are capable of destroying corrupted things. I've never seen anyone use this for anything; actually, I haven't even faced anyone corrupted in my existence. Supposedly, there are ways to exchange your soul, or essence, as they say in the Nailia tradition, for power. But this compromises both the freedom to learn new things and the free will. The first time I heard about it, it sounded like a rather stupid thing to do. Anyway, I know there's no way for this type of corruption to happen with the use of magic alone—be it defiler magic, chaotic effects, or even extermination magics, which are all terrible things—they have no relation to this kind of crap." Amanda reflected.

  "And you think Seneca did this kind of corruption thing?" Petra exclaimed.

  "No! Absolutely not! If he had, it would be quite evident, I think. And when Mosh last met him, there was none of this," Amanda replied.

  Petra looked at Amanda with a questioning expression while biting a slice of toast.

  Amanda continued in a thoughtful posture. "Well, I warned you it wouldn't be very useful information. Anyway, I also asked my student if he had any other ideas about why he was looking for such artifacts, and to my surprise, I learned that there are rumors that some Alphas might become corrupted. Assuming this is true, eliminating the corruption could mean nullifying some of their powers. I am still at a loss. If it were to eliminate corrupted things, it would be much easier to use the magic from the ethics school."

  "Well, the others on the bridge are still thinking about what to do. The problem is we don't know anything about what Seneca intends, and after Rocatrista's visit, it becomes clear that not even his old colleagues are certain… So, at least knowing what he was looking for a while ago helps us." Petra concluded.

  "Maybe. Seneca isn't well-liked by many people in the world of the living because he somehow avoided Biggus's hunters, and people currently distrust everything. But aside from the fact that he was looking for artifacts of that kind, everything else is supposition," Amanda warned.

  Petra finished her snack while mentally updating the others, who were still immersed in their thoughts. Silas: "Thank you, Petra and Amanda; this eases some of the weight of our doubts, but there's still a lot that we'll only discover when we meet Seneca." Liora: "It bothers me not knowing exactly what's going on; now we're getting into knight business, and we don't even know if Seneca can help us." Silas: "Well, at least Biggus wouldn't approve of messing with knights; none of us were alive long enough to have personally encountered knights until a few minutes ago." Frank: "Right! But I wouldn't say it was literally a personal meeting." Amanda: "I've encountered dozens of them; just don't assume they're all saints, and you'll be fine. I like Seneca for his ideas and actions; whether he was or wasn't a knight doesn't matter to me." Frank: "Sounds good! Now let's eat something and plan what to do with the new Petra’s universes; there's no point in digesting what happened today with an empty stomach." Petra: "I already ate something just now, but I'm still hungry because these days have been quite tiring!" Silas: "Good idea! Let's meet and prepare a decent lunch; we really have a lot to plan in terms of technology projects; time will help us better assimilate the news."

  Now all gathered for a late lunch, Silas went to the cube to prepare one of his recipes from the Earth database. He considered a Bolognese lasagna to raise their spirits. Meanwhile, Liora, less inclined to culinary pleasures, leaned beside Frank, who was already leaning against the wall with his arms crossed at his spot, trying to organize the day's information.

  "Let's see then what we discovered today," Liora began. "It seems that, after all, there will be elections in Metropolis very soon, and Biggus is preparing to run. Why would he do that now?"

  "That doesn't seem to make any sense; how did you guys find this out?" Amanda asked, still not up to date on the morning's conversation.

  "According to our contact in Rocatrista, Biggus removed Kuj from Metropolis before calling elections," Silas replied, preparing the ingredients provided by the cube to customize the dishes.

  "Kuj? Biggus's clone son? That guy's a genocidal maniac like his father. Many people in the world of the dead were killed because of him and are afraid of returning to life; that's account only for those who died and didn't have their essences exterminated by magic, so they remain in the Spirits City." Amanda grumbled.

  "That's the same Kuj, but I didn't know he was a clone of Biggus," Frank commented.

  "The Bo can perform asexual reproduction naturally; being a clone wouldn't be a problem, but the way Kuj was raised is monstrous," Amanda commented.

  "We didn't know anything about those Kuj information when we lived in Metropolis. Did this information come from the world of the dead?" Liora questioned.

  "Yes, the dead knew their executioners, first the extermination mages' guild, and then the Alphas; when they grew inside the society, they followed brutal practices that killed many other people; that's when they didn't kill themselves. Over time and with the accumulation of power, those brutal practices continued, but they realized it was more effective to exterminate their victims rather than just sending them to the world of the dead," Amanda commented.

  "I imagine. Is there more about Kuj?" Liora asked.

  "There were eight brothers generated at the same time, all Biggus clones and all called Kuj either. Biggus made them kill each other, and the last one to survive is the one the public in Metropolis came to know. I know this because one of the dead Kuj brothers is a spirit prison inmate; being a mage, this dead Kuj escaped being exterminated and eventually was revived among the Suma. And when he was freed in the City of Spirits, saying that he has no memories, he plotted to get revenge on his brother, but we managed to find this out and stopped him before he could make any mess." Amanda said.

  "And how do you keep him imprisoned? Because I imagine Biggus or the current Kuj would have already tried something," Silas interjected, preparing to gratinate the dish.

  "Biggus tried a few times, but the Kuj who went to the world of the dead is in a Cartesian dream prison, as humans call it; it's a location between the sixth and seventh layers of Gate's Underworld, with a portal to the world of the dead where the person who falls asleep inside never wakes up and lives in a perpetual, perfect dream where everything they desire becomes reality but without knowing they are actually dreaming," Amanda commented.

  This was new to everyone. Silas stopped preparing the food and raised an eyebrow for a moment to process the information. Petra broke the silence: "My God, Amanda, I never want to be imprisoned in your city; that's worse than hell."

  Frank's curiosity spoke, "But Amanda, there's no way for the prisoner to know they're dreaming?"

  Amanda replied, without giving it much importance: "Don't worry; almost all condemned won't end up in that prison. Only two prisoners have been placed there to date because the location is completely isolated, and their presence would be a threat to the City of the Spirits. When the crisis with Metropolis ends, we'll remove Kuj from there. And, Frank, the prisoner has no way of knowing for sure, only that they live a fortunate life where all desires end up coming true."

  "From now on, I'll complain less about my bad luck with magics; at least, it's certain that I'm not dreaming," Petra said with an ironic smile.

  "Are you sure nobody can enter or leave that type of prison, Amanda?" Liora asked in disbelief.

  "Hypothetically, someone might be unlucky enough to stumble upon an entrance if they're wandering through the Underworld, but even after entering, it would be difficult to leave and even more difficult to find anything inside because it's practically an infinite space, let me think how to explain…" Amanda paused and looked at Liora for a moment. After a brief private telepathic discussion between the two, she finally continued: "The human name for it would be a collection of multi-connected spaces, where some of them would be Riemann manifolds with positive Ricci Curvatures. And in the case of the manifold we use for the prison, all the edges are periodically connected only when the connection with the world of the dead is open. What we do is send an Oioi-Suma to put inmates in and take them out because the oioi don't need to sleep or dream, depending on their mental models, and this guarantees that they won't get trapped and also that the people inside won't get lost before the door is closed again; therefore, when we open the door again, they will be dreaming in the same place we left them."

  "There's a human name for that? I only understood that while the door is closed, space is infinite, but nobody enters or leaves, and the people are trapped sleeping in an eternal dream. I'm imagining how this place was discovered," Frank concluded.

  Amanda gave a little jump in the air as she turned, saying, "Yes, Frank, that's one way of understanding this place. A Suma scientist, who happened to be a knight, studied this a long time ago. Before the study, it was just a strange portal in the middle of the Spirits' Field that was kept closed because the ones who entered never returned. This knight's hypothesis is still the most accepted today; it says that some event that occurred during the sixth and seventh multiverses generated this distortion; after this space was created, it could never be encapsulated within Gate's cyclical processes of multiverse creation and destruction, and this implies that there may be people from past multiverses today dreaming inside some of these manifolds without knowing anything."

  "So, would it be possible to try to rescue other people from previous multiverses trapped dreaming inside?" Frank became interested.

  Uncomfortable with some information that could be troublesome, Amanda realized she should stop trying to avoid Frank. She said it all: "The Suma knight's name was Kan Rnak, a member of the Academy's Eighth House; he disappeared inside that place trying to do exactly that, Frank. Despite good intentions, he took with him the only Tempus Ring in the City of Spirits and was never heard from again. It's a well-known story; many Suma remember this event as Kanrnak's Dilemma and use it to ponder the difficult balance between ideology and pragmatism. I don't like making judgments solely based on this example because my opinion is that there's enough pragmatism within Suma culture, but that might be a conversation for another day."

  Silas interrupted while using his abilities to prepare a divinely flavored recipe: "I find it fascinating that I've never heard of any of this in Metropolis; it makes me think how much we lost culturally after the cataclysm. But yes, returning to the order of the day, Biggus removed Kuj from Metropolis to avoid problems in the supposed elections. From what we know, Kuj went West with a delegation to hunt a Vood'Gum knight couple from the Sixth House, and perhaps he's coming after one of Seneca's failed apprentices named Beni. But nothing indicates they're hunting Seneca; any ideas, Amanda? We were searching both the networks a while ago inside the bridge but found nothing."

  Amanda paused to think. "Wait a minute, guys! Based on this description, maybe they're the Rajotine parents!" Liora and Silas exchanged wide glances and nodded affirmatively.

  Frank and Petra exchanged clueless glances and shrugged. Frank said, "Let's take it easy, gang; lunch will be long. Let us deal with one thing at a time. What is a Tempus Ring? And what is a Vood'Gum, exactly? And what's with those nice numbers in the Academy House names?"

  Liora smiled and explained: "Excuse our manners; we've been through so much together that sometimes we forget you're new to Gate. Humans call Vood'Gum dragons, but they're different from the wyrm we encountered a while ago. They came from the Aba En galaxy, which was in the process of merging with the Aba Oj galaxy, from which the Nailia and N? you already knew came. If you prefer the human name, Gate's dragons were considered by the extermination mages to be the superior race of Aba En, just as the Nailia were supposed to be superior in Aba Oj. But unlike the Nailia, a considerable number of dragons supported Biggus's ideology."

  "So these Vood'Gum ended up making different decisions from the other groups we knew before. In their original world, does this ideology of the extermination mages make sense? What explains this? Would it be like an election pool where the population is divided into groups, and the differences in choices became apparent?" Petra asked Liora, trying to make a parallel.

  Liora tries one answer, closing her eyes: "Hmmm…" She paused to think for a moment, showing some difficulty. "I might be saying something stupid because I don't have great knowledge of Vood'Gum society, but I don't think they're like the political choices of humans on Earth. Vood'Gum psychology is very different from any other; they have a century-long childhood and take a long time to change their minds; during childhood, they're marginally rational at best. However, physically, they are destruction machines to cope with their brutal home planet's environment. Because of that, they have difficulty understanding other societies, particularly when they are young. In Gate, this wouldn't be such a relevant issue since everyone is immortal; however, after the cataclysm, this began to matter because most of the Vood'Gum hatched from their eggs right after the cataclysm in response to a significant drop in their population. Therefore, at the time Biggus ideology grew up, they were still living in a partially rational childhood. This is a sociological theory about which I have more doubts than certainties."

  Silas began to arrange everyone's cutlery around the table. He said, "In five minutes, the lasagna will be ready! Regarding the rings and the knights, I think Amanda will know much better than we do."

  Petra commented in a light and animated voice: "But that dish of yours must be spectacular, Silas! My stomach is starting to think for itself! And also explain who this Rajotini is; the name makes me think of an Italian pasta, or perhaps it's interference from that wonderful smell coming from the cube."

  "That's true; this food perfume is making even me excited," Amanda said, floating a little higher than usual. "Regarding the ring, there are various of them in Gate's legends; it's a monolith that resembles a B?sium ribbon, but if manipulated, it can divide into two intertwined rings; it's an extremely dangerous artifact and allows its user to manipulate time and space without boundaries. However, infinite knowledge is also necessary to use those rings properly. Therefore, a finite rational being who uses it will always be making a mistake; what matters is if the mistake will, for example, teleport you a few meters from where you wanted to go or if it will take you to a future multiverse where everyone is already dead."

  "Various Tempus Rings? And what's the relationship to the ghost we encountered in Northern Valley that's after us? The Lady of Tempus?" Frank asked.

  Amanda sat down at the table and began to speak: "Well, I don't know what the thing that's after you is, but I know what it isn't; it's not a ghost, at least certainly not a Suma." Amanda paused while fiddling with the cutlery on the table. She continued: "And it's not the Lady of Tempus because we understand the Lady of Tempus as the name of the person who possesses the Armor of Tempus. This armor is an infinite power monolith, and when broken, instead of generating a copy of itself, it regenerates and generates a Tempus Ring; therefore, it's possible to have an unlimited number of Tempus Rings as the Lady of Tempus could break some bits of her armor."

  "So, the Lady of Tempus is a type of position of a woman who possesses an armor? But why does it have to be a woman?" Petra asked.

  "No, no!" Amanda replied, realizing what she was saying. "Those are Gate legends found in monoliths in the ancestral language, and the words don't say anything about being masculine or feminine, not even if the person who possesses the armor is human or not. The original terms only designate it as a rational being. Personifying the Lady of Tempus as a female figure is a human interpretation of the legend, and the nano-translators make the adaptations. The reason behind this interpretation escapes me."

  "So, I imagine that when we call the creature we encountered in Northern Valley a ghost, we're not specifically referring to the Suma ghost," Frank retorted, uncrossing his arms and settling into the table.

  "Exactly! That's why many people prefer to learn all the languages and not just depend on the nano-translators," Amanda confirmed.

  Silas took his Bolognese lasagna from the cube, filling the environment with smoke and perfume, and while cutting pieces to distribute, said: "Stop grumbling about the nano-translators; they do a decent job. If they were perfect, that would also take away some of the fun."

  After a brief pause for everyone to begin enjoying the glorious meal, Amanda continued with the subject: "Well, about the Tempus Rings, I think there's nothing more to say because they're just fuel for legends; we don't know of any more of them in Gate. The current Lady of Tempus has been dead for a long time and cannot be revived, and the Armor of Tempus is lost somewhere within the three innermost circles of the Underworld."

  "And what's inside the Underworld?" Frank asked, leaning toward Amanda. "Are there also numbers like the Academy Houses?"

  Amanda spoke during pauses in the meal: "Yes, but the Underworld's layer numbers are circumstantial because they're concentric spheres; the first is the innermost," Amanda said, lifting a fork with layers of lasagna, showing Frank and smiling as she ate. "Each layer is a past multiverse; you'd have to talk to a knight for more details, but knowing those things would cause you problems in Metropolis."

  "That sounds like an interesting place to visit someday…" Frank let his thoughts escape.

  Petra almost lasagna choked with laughter. She said, "Brilliant, Frank! What do you think of the idea of getting life insurance with me as a beneficiary?"

  Amanda responded casually, "We can make insurance proposals at a Suma bank, but perhaps the terms of the policies won't be advantageous if they know you intend to stroll through the Underworld." After eating another slice, she returned to the subject. "But the Academy House numbers are different—a type of didactic sequence for the art of Gate's Knights. The eight houses are also ordered as a reference to concepts of places, and if I remember correctly, they are: school, hospital, temple, library, port, arena, studio, and labyrinth."

  "These are aspects of human activities?" Frank ventured.

  Amanda agreed, extending her palm to Frank to slow down while saying, "Yes, but above all, concepts of actions by any intelligent creature. This list I mentioned makes sense for humans of your time, but for other species, or even for prehistoric humans, the terms would be very different. The Academy isn't just a place where the art of knights is learned but a place where many different kinds of knowledge are organized and available for learning. When the first colonists arrived in Gate, it was from the Academy that they managed to understand this place and make use of the various powers we use. If nobody had survived after the cataclysm and the Academy were inaccessible as it is now, it would be much more difficult to learn anything."

  "But wouldn't it be possible to unearth the Academy?" Petra asked, thinking about the things she could already do with a couple of magics.

  "It would be! The Academy's second house was the only one unearthed. Still, something prevents it from regenerating as usual for a structural monolith, and even the tree of life remains dead—a colossal artifact planted in the center of its structure and larger than the house itself. Despite the direct relationship of the location with knights, even Biggus's people agreed to try to restore the houses of healing right after the cataclysm to accelerate the reconstruction. Unfortunately, without any success," Amanda replied, a little hurried so the food wouldn't get too cold.

  "For the first time, I heard someone say something about Biggus that's not entirely bad," Petra observed, raising her glass of water.

  "Don't get used to it, Petra. I don't think that will happen very often!" Liora observed. She is the only one not eating anything, and now she is thinking about buying a human palate device when she returns to civilization.

  "Right," Frank said, already satisfied, finishing his plate. "So, Kuj is after a knight dragon couple who would be from House 6… the arena?" Frank mentally recounted.

  "And what about Rigatoni? Was he the son of those dragons?" Petra remembered.

  "Rijotini!" Amanda corrected. "Yes, the dragon couple was both darkness high knights of the sixth house, specialists in performing high-risk missions for Old Metropolis, and by doing so, they accumulated a lot of money, political influence, and combat power throughout their lives. They survived the cataclysm because they were watching an artistic performance inside a monolith, and when they returned to the ruined city Metropolis was turned into, they spent more than half of their resources helping to rebuild the place; during this period, they had a son, Rijotini."

  "Was it a Chester performance, by any chance?" Frank asked, to Amanda's surprise.

  "Yes, how the hell do you know about that but not the other things?" Amanda asked, surprised and still with half a plate full.

  "I learned about Chester this morning in Rocatrista, but there wasn't time to ask almost anything," Frank lamented, already using his napkin.

  "Curious, but moving on," Amanda continued, holding onto the chair to avoid floating. "Regarding Rijotini, when things started heating up for the knights in Metropolis, his parents abandoned the city and left behind a real fortune. By that time, Rijotini himself openly supported Biggus against the knights, which generated unanimous criticism from all of society—mostly because a son betrayed his parents and, to a lesser extent, for hunting people just for having learned something."

  "What do you guys think about turning around the ship and helping those dragons kick Kuj's ass?" Frank suggested, to everyone's surprise.

  Liora smiled broadly and gave Frank a thumbs-up, but Silas spoke up: "Maybe it's a good idea to keep seeking Seneca. Not that our help is worthless, but they're two knight dragons with millennia of intensive training. If I make a list of the most dangerous things in Gate right now, if this couple isn't at the top, they'd be very close, and I don′t even know what a darkness high knight is, but it sounds like trouble."

  "Another reason to go help them!" Frank smiled, to Liora's delight.

  "That's not it at all, people!" Amanda cooled things down. "It happens that Rijotini stopped supporting Biggus some years after the elections were canceled, but he didn't become a declared enemy of the new system. The thing is, Rijotini disappeared 6 or 7 years ago; the MBSI couldn't discover anything, nor could the people I know in the City of Spirits, and it doesn't seem to me that it was Biggus's doing."

  Everyone looked at Amanda. Silas said, "I didn't know details about this, but I confess I didn't follow the draconian political columns in the newspapers."

  "This information wasn't popular in Metropolis, I think, but it was in my city," Amanda commented. "Rijotini's disappearance doesn't exactly help Biggus. People still associated him with a supporter of the extermination mages' ideology, and I know the MBSI even hired our city to help with the investigations; commercial relations between the two cities are rare nowadays, but this thing was such a mess that even Biggus tried to understand what had happened."

  Liora opened her arms, also unaware of the subject; Petra ventured, "What Kuj have to do with this? Why did he decide to come after these dragons now?"

  "I think I’ve figured something out," Amanda suggests, animated.

  "Do you think Kuj killed them all and is now justifying it as a hunt?" Frank asked.

  "I don't think so; Kuj couldn't do much against them," Amanda reflected.

  "Then what's going on?" Frank questioned.

  "Well, Rijotini's parents were also trying to find out what happened to their son on their own. If Biggus knew it, maybe there wouldn't be any dragons where Kuj is going, but he could return to Metropolis saying he defeated them all. Even if those dragons return after the elections, it would be too late." Amanda suggested.

  "That's a risk, but if we discover something about this, it would be useful," Liora interrupted, quite interested.

  "Certainly! At least in the City of Spirits, there would be people interested in knowing," Amanda paused, finishing her plate, and concluded. "However, Silas's suggestion to focus on Seneca makes sense. I'm afraid we won't be able to get near them in time without a space-warping ship."

  Silas, also satisfied with the banquet, sank into his chair as he spoke: "And we still haven't decided anything about some practical issues; I'm thinking of moving my laboratory to Petra's cold universe while I gather material from the hot one for the projects. I'll set up accommodations, a training dojo, and advanced support structures for us to live inside. I'm also thinking of setting up an automated factory."

  "A factory? What are you thinking of producing, Silas?" Frank asked.

  "Energy cells and batteries for now. I plan on renewing all our equipment, and it will also be useful if we encounter people who need technology along the way," Silas concluded.

  Everyone agreed in comfortable silence, resting at the table for a few minutes.

  Amanda broke the silence: "Well, team, on my part, I'd like to stay with you until you've learned the third magic of each school, but I need to reposition my portals and return to the City of Spirits before any new trouble breaks out in Metropolis, so I think I'll stay here for two more weeks at most."

  "Don't feel confined by us, Amanda; you can stay as long as you want. I only have gratitude towards you!" Petra concluded.

  The days passed on the schrogae ship without any surprises. After a few days, everyone spent most of their time inside Petra's new universe—Amanda giving classes, Silas building enormous metal structures, and the others training in a new and immense dojo. After the first week, they started sleeping in expanded luxury rooms inside Petra's universe. Silas repositioned the cubes of the respective rooms from the ship to the new universe, and now only Liora's copy spent increasingly solitary days in Gate inside a lone ship.

  In the middle of the second week, while everyone was going about their routines, a yellow alert was triggered. Liora's copy said through the communicator, "Attention, team! The yellow alert is not dangerous, but it is happening just now; I'm receiving images from Northern Valley. A small ship entered the city perimeter a few seconds ago. Two cloaked figures literally jumped out of it, close enough to the central square for the ghost to have already seen them."